The Great Jackson
by Peaceful Pegasus
Summary: Nico has just moved to New York and he is working in bonds in Wall Street. He visits his cousin Annabeth and her Husband Luke to start off his summer, but once he meets Jackson will his life stay ordinary or will his summer be turned upside down? (Crossover with the Great Gatsby)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

NICO

In my younger more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." I have always gone by that but even I have my limits. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Jackson, the man who gave his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-Jackson, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.

In the spring of 22 I came East to New York to work in bonds on Wall Street. I moved to a weatherbeaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month in West Egg. I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investments. The mansion next doors was Jackson's. I didn't know Mr. Jackson yet though. I guess my summer really begins on the evening I drove to have dinner with the Castellans. Annabeth was my second cousin twice removed and I known Luke in husband was enormously wealthy and it was hard to believe a man in my generation was wealthy. So it happened on that warm windy evening I drove over to East egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. When I dirt got there I saw Tom standing on the porch. He has changed since I last saw him. He was more muscular and manly than I last saw him. He saw me and smiled. We talked cor a few minutes on his funny porch.

"I've got a nice place here." He said,bis eyes flashing about fearlessly. Turning me around Greenleaf me through his house. We pasted a hall way with trophies and awards he won from numerous polo games. We finally came to a room with all the Windows open and the white curtains flying around. It was an amazing site. The only completely stationary object in the room was a enormous couch with two women occupying it. One of the girls look over the back of the couch and to was yelling at the server's to close the Windows and doors. The other women sitting along side Annabth was introduced as Miss saw and giggled.

"I'm p-paralyzed with happiness!" She said she giggled afterwords as if she said a humorous joke. "Do they miss me?" She cried ecstatically.

"The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath and there's the persistent wail all nigh long along the north shore"

"How gorgeous!" We chatted a while longer untill dinner was called.

-/-/-

We sat down at the table where the dinner was and started to eat.

"So you live out in West Egg." Miss Baker remarked. "I know somebody out there."

"I don't know a single-"

"Oh you must know Jackson."

"Jackson." Annabeth demanded. "What Jackson?"

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor a telephone went off. The vulgar left the porch to answer the call. Th butler came back and said something I Luke's ear. Luke accused himself from the table to go to the telephone. Annabeth went after him. I was about to speak when Miss Baker yelled out-

"Sh!"

Miss Bakcker leaned forward unashamed trying to hear.

"This Mr Jackson is my neighbor-" I said.

"S

Don't talk I'm trying to hear what's happening."

"What happening?" I asked

"You mean you don't know?" She said truly surprised. "I thought everyone knew."

"I don't."

"Why Luke's got some women in New York." She said.

"Some women." I said blankly. She nodded.

Luke and Annabth came back into the room.

"Why Nikki. I love having you at my table. You remind me of a rose. An absolute rose!" Annabeth told me. I was actually the complete opposite of a rose.

After a while I went back home. When I got home I saw a figure on my neighbors dock. Something told me it was Mr. Jackson himself. He seemed to be reaching out to words the water nervously. That was when I first saw it. I green light flashing fro. The other side of the bay.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter_**** Two**

**Nico**

Luke invited me to lunch at the Yale Club. I accepted the invitation. We were on a train going through the grotesque place between the West Egg and the city. The place was covered in ashes and it was all watched over by doctor T.J. Eckleburg. Shoes eyes were painted on a billboard in the middle watching it over like the eyes of a God. At last Docter Eckleburg was forgotten about and the billboard was left there falling apart on piece at a time. The train lurched to an unexpected stop.

"Come on I want you to meet my girl." Luke told me right before he jumped off. I of course followed having no idea where we were. He lead me to a little building with a sign that read- _Apollo Solace's Garage- Buys, Sells, and Repairs. _I followed Luke inside.

I saw a man with stringy blonde hair and bright blue eyes standing by a wrecked car wiping his hand on a piece of waste.

"Hello Apollo old man." Luke said. Slipping him on the shoulder. "How's business?"

"Good." Apollo said unconvincingly. "When are you going to sell me that car?" He asked. "Soon. I've got my guy working on it now."

"He works kinda slow don't he?"

"No he doesn't." Luke said coldly. "If you think that way I better take my work somewhere else."

"I don't mean that's." Apollo said quickly. "I just meant that-"

Luke glanced around the garage impatiently. Then I heard footsteps. In a moment a women blocked the light of the shop coming down the stairs. That's when I first heard he voice.

"Get some chairs why don't cha? So somebody can sit down." She said in a soft course voice towards Apollo.

"Oh sure." He agreed hurriedly. He went off go get the chairs.

"I want to see you," Luke told her giving her money. "Get on the next train."

"All right."

"Thalia meet Nico, Annabeths cousin. Nico meet Thalia."

"Ill meet you by the news stand on the lower level." she nodded and moved away from him just as Apollo Solace emerged from his office.

We waited for her down the road and out of sight. it was a few days before the fourth of July, and a gray scrawny Italian child was setting torpedoes in a row along the railroad track."Terrible place, isn't it," said Luke, exchanging a frown with doctor Eckleburg.

"Awful."

"It does her good to get away."

"Doesn't her husband object?"

"Apollo? He thinks she goes to she her sister, Bianca in New York. he's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive."

So Luke, his girl and I went together to New York- or not quit together, for Mrs. Solace sat discreetly in another car. On the way Luke bought a dog for Thalia. I have only been drunk twice in my whole life and the second time was that afternoon. I don't remember much after that except for that I met Thalia's sister Bianca, and her two friends Mr. and Mrs. Stoll. Travis worked in photography and his wife Katie, I'm actually not sure what she dose. I also remember Luke smacked Thalia for mentioning Annabeth's name and broke her nose. the last thing I remember, however was going home late at night. when I got home I distinctly remember having a feeling that I was being watched.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Nico**

All day butlers and servants were working to get Jackson's house ready for a party. All day there were people making drinks, putting up decorations, or cleaning up in general. Night came fast though, and when it did I headed over to the party. However when I got there, I realized almost no one even got invited, the just came. I had got an invitation from Mr. Jackson. That morning a butler in a bright blue suit came across the yard and gave it to me. All of New York simply piled into cars and came. I kept asking if anyone saw Mr. Jackson and they all said that they hadn't or no one has. I even asked the bartender. so I decided to get hopelessly drunk.

After a while however I saw Ms. dare. She was standing alone on the marble steps with party people all around her having a good time. I made a decision to go over there.

"Hello!" I realized that my voice was slightly louder than everyone else's.

"I thought you might be here." she said. "I remember that you said that you lived around here-" She held my hand impersonally. Meaning that she would take care of me in a minute when she saw two young ladies come over to her.

"Sorry you didn't win." One of them said. They were talking about the golf tournament. Ms. Dare lost in the last finals.

"You don't know who we are," the other started off. "but we met you here about a month ago."

We all went over to an empty table.

"Do you come here often?"inquired Rachel.

"I think the last one I was at was the one were we met you. But I do like coming to these parties. though. Wasn't that the last one for you too Lucille?" said the girl right next to Rachel.

It was for Lucille too.

"Do you know Jackson?" I asked

"No, but I heard that he killed a man once." Luicille told me.

"I heard that he was a German spy." The other girl said. There was lot of chatter about Mr. Jackson after that.

"Lets get out of here." Rachel whispered in my ear. "This is much too polite for me."

We got up and she explained that we were going to find the host. The undergraduate nodded. I had an uneasy feeling though. The bar where we glanced first was crowded, but Jackson was not there. She couldn't find him at the top of the steps, and he wasn't on the veranda. On a chance we tried an important-looking door, and walked into a high gothic library, paneled with a carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas. A stout, middle aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. This man was obsessed with the books being real. Lie really real. And of course we did not find him in the library. We went out to the garden and it was filled with people dancing and drinking. we sat down at a table with a man about my age and a rowdy little girl.

At the lull of the entertainment the man looked at me and smiled.

"Your face is familiar," he said, politely."weren't you in the Third Division during the war?"

"Why yes. I was in the ninth machine-gun battalion."

"I was in the seventh Infantry until June nineteen-eighteen. I knew Id seen you somewhere before."

We talked for a moment about some wet, gray little villages in France. Evidently he lived in this vicinity, for he told me that he had just bought a hydroplane, and he was going to try it out in the morning.

"Want to go with me, old sport? Just near the shore along the Sound."

"What time?"

"Any time that suits you best."

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask his name when Rachel looked around and smiled.

"having a good time now?" she inquired.

"Much better." I turned again to my new acquaintance.

"This is an unusual party for me. I haven't even seen the host. I live over there-" I waved my hand at the invisible hedge in the distance, "and this man Jackson sent over his chauffeur with an invitation." For a moment he looked at me as if he failed to understand.

"I'm Jackson." he said suddenly.

"What!" I exclaimed. "Oh I beg your pardon."

"I thought you knew, old sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very good host."

He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or more times in life. It faced-or seemed to face-the whole eternal world for an instant, and the concentrated on _you_ with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as for as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that at your best, you hoped to convey. Some time before he introduced himself Id got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care.

Almost at the moment when Mr. Jackson identified himself, a butler hurried toward him with the information that Chicago was calling him on the wire. He excused himself with a small bow that included each of us in turn.

"If you want anything, just ask for it, old sport," he urged me, "Excuse me. I will rejoin you later."

When he was gone I turned to Rachel- constrained to assure her of my surprise. I had expected that Mr. Jackson would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years.

"Who is he?" I demanded. "Do you know?"

"He's just a man named Jackson."

"Where is he from, I mean? And what dose he do?"

She told he told her that he went to Oxford, but she didn't believe it.

"Why not?"

"I don't know," she insisted, "I just don't think he went there."

The Orchestra started to play and fireworks went off in sync with the music. At the beginning of the song however Mr. Jackson's butler came over and said that Mr. Jackson wanted to speak to Rachel alone.

"With me?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes Madame." The song ended a while later and so did the fireworks. Everyone started to leave. Rachel and Jackson came out of the library together. Rachel came down to meet me. Her party was calling after impatiently. "I just heard the most amazing thing." she whispered. "How long were we in there?"

"About an hour."

"It was simply amazing. But I swore I wouldn't tell and here I am tantalizing you."

"Just tell me."

"But I swore. I swore I wouldn't tell. Call me. I'm in the phone book. We will have tea next week." she left.

I walked to the path to my house and I saw Jackson standing on a balcony. He waved to me "Good night, old sport. Good night."

"Good night" I waved back. I went home.


End file.
